It is such a big day here in the USA. After eight years of the Republicans tearing this country apart, invading countries, running up a record debt, and abandoning the health and education of the people, there is a time for change. Adrian prefers graphs and long detailed evidence-based policy documents, but there is something about watching Obama speak that is very inspiring. I get goosebumps when Obama talks about the great hopes that he has for America. We both agree, however, that Obama is the best choice – the only rational choice – for America and the rest of the world.

I hope that US citizens choose to vote. I hope that there are enough voting booths and voting machines for everyone. I hope that the ballots and machines record these votes accurately. I hope that people do not vote out of fear. I hope that people vote for universal health care. I hope that people vote for cheap, accessible, and quality health care. I hope people vote to end the war in Iraq. I hope people vote to rebuild Afghanistan. I hope the Democrats get over 60 seats in the Senate. I hope people vote for Barack Obama.

In an attempt to see more of Seattle before we left, Adrian and I participated in a Savor Seattle Food and Drink Tasting Tour. We all wore wireless headphones so that we could hear our guide above the noise, and were given a rare behind the scenes tour of Pike Place Markets.

We ate doughnuts from the Daily Dozen, drank tea at MarketSpice, drank soup at Pike Place Chowder, went behind the counter to sample Chukar Cherries, ate herbed curds at Beecher’s, sampled Piroshky-Piroshky pastries, and finished with Etta’s triple coconut cream pie.

In addition to sampling some delicious Honeycrisp apples at Frank’s Quality Produce, we also learnt that if one wants eggplants with fewer seeds, one should choose the male eggplants with the small round navel, rather than the female eggplants with the long wide navels.

But most exciting of all, as we were savouring the smoked salmon at Pike Place Fish Markets, the fishmongers threw me one of their giant fishes, and I caught it! I smelt like a fishwife for the rest of the day, but it was well worth it for such a quintessential Seattle experience.

Last night we held our Belgium-themed farewell party. We had waffles, fries with mayonnaise, chocolate cupcakes, and fourteen different types of Belgian beer. Many of our friends from Seattle were able to join us, and our tiny house was filled with noise and conversation. So many people came up to me during the night, telling me how sad that they were that we were leaving, and how much they will miss us. I have made so many wonderful friends over the past twenty months, and it will be strange leaving them all behind. I made sure to tell them that there will be a spare room waiting for them in Brussels if they come to visit.


We have four more weeks of work, and then we are leaving the USA. Work is so busy that I rarely have time to contemplate this fact. My time as a US resident and researcher at the bench is coming to an end.

At the beginning of 2007, if someone had asked me where I would most like to live in the world, I would have said California. A land full of sunshine, shopping, Apple keynotes, determined cheer squads, and inspiring vampire-slaying heroines. What more could I want? It turns out, I would also like to live in a land with carbon awareness, civil liberties, minimal poverty, adequate education, compassionate immigration laws, bountiful public transport, human rights, health-care, foreign policy, stable banks, and an intelligent and progressive government. That land is not the bizarre, arrogant, and insular USA.

We experienced an extreme of this culture on Saturday night, when we attended our first and only American sporting event – the university football game. The 70 000 seat Husky stadium dominates the campus, and it was at around 80% capacity when we arrived. The Huskies are ranked 118 out of the 119 college football teams, and they have yet to win a game all season. Yet, around 55 000 people came out to see them, paying anything from $16 to $127 to join in the event. Even more strangely, as we walked through the parking lot, we saw people sitting under purple and gold marquees, watching the game on television right outside the stadium.

Due to new stricter criteria, football players for the University of Washington now must meet the same admission and grading requirements as the rest of the student body. They must keep a relatively high grade-point average throughout the semester, and are removed from the team if they fail too many courses. Thus, the ranking of the team has plummeted because the players are now spending more time on their subsidised education at one of the best public universities in the USA. Naturally, fans are outraged at these new requirements. Yet somehow, the whole audience was convinced that the Huskies were the best team in the world, and cussed at the referees for every penalty that was given to the home team. We left at half-time in disgust, and caught a bus home with a freshman dressed head-to-toe in Husky purple, who declared that she wished that she had never come to UW, and that she had gone to a place with a better football team so that she could be proud of her university.

At half-time, 3000 students from high school marching bands around Washington gathered to play the Husky theme song “Bow down to Washington”. It was quite a spectacle. 

The time has come to leave “the greatest nation in the world” and to find a home that is more in line with our values and our ideals. Next month, we will be spending three months in Australia, before starting our new home in Leuven, Belgium.